Bakery equipment manufacturer Bakers Basco has been awarded £6,438 in damages and costs, after a plastics recycler in Shropshire was found “stealing” its equipment to sell the raw materials.

A Bakers Basco investigation revealed its equipment – including bread bakests and dollies – were removed without permission from various customers in Birmingham, and ended up at the unnamed plastics recycler.

The bakery equipment maker used GPS tracking chips in its equipment to follow its products to Shropshire. The plastics recycler held a “substantial amount”​ of Bakers Basco’s equipment, worth thousands of pounds, it claimed.

‘Stealing our equipment’​

Bakers Basco general manager Steve Millward said: “Usually, when our equipment go missing, it’s because someone, like a small baker or retailer, has ‘borrowed’ it without permission. In this case, the defendants were stealing our equipment and recycling them for the value of the raw materials.​

“When people steal ​[our equipment] like this, the bakeries that pay to license our equipment, the retailers that sell their loaves and the shoppers who rely on them for their daily bread all end up paying extra for the actions of a small number of greedy criminals.”​

The plastics recycler was served with appropriate documentation and a charge for the recovery of the equipment, according to Bakers Basco. After it didn’t respond, the Shropshire firm was given a County Court judgment for £6,438.45, including the original claimed damages, plus interest, and court costs.

A number of investigations​

The investigation was the latest in a number of Bakers Basco cases, spanning 12 months. Eight investigations have resulted in almost £64,000 worth of court orders handed out for costs and damages.

Bakers Basco said it would continue to track down anybody using its equipment inappropriately.

Millward said: “We will be deploying more high-tech crime fighting equipment in the future. From now on, anyone thinking about stealing or destroying our property in the future needs to understand that we will track them down, we will call in the police, and we will pursue them through the courts.”​